Birthday Week!

This was a short week following Thanksgiving, but we packed a lot in - including birthdays for my husband, my sister, my sister-in-law...and me! This was a week of daily cake and pie and a few big dinners, but I also stayed fairly busy -

The dog and I got in our three runs for C25K week 3, we went on a couple of trips to dog park, I got through Day 15 of the 30-day ab challenge, and we got out of town to see my family for birthday dinner. A few pics -

Tuesday - It's raining, it's dark - and we're running. Woah.

Wednesday - amazing moon over the dog park tonight

Saturday morning Fall colours

Spotted on a roof during our run on Saturday afternoon. Any birders out there recognize what this is?

My parents' puppy is 17n weeks old and getting bigger - but he's still quite a bit smaller than Stella :-)

In other news - today was the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon. A number my friends were spectating and volunteering, and I was disappointed that I couldn't be a part of it. It's made me realize that I haven't volunteered at a race for well over a year...and also reopened my secret urge to do a half one day. I am training for the ATB 15K in March, so a half in May seems like good timing. On paper at least.

Two things to think about while I'm planning next year's goals.

CN Tower - Check!

My son and I climbed the CN Tower this weekend - again! 

It's a tall tower. See how it towers over the rest of the city?
Photo source.

That's 1,776 stairs, folks. 144 flights. Sweaty work. This was my third time, his second, and we both PR'd :-)

28:50 for me; an outstanding 21:02 for the boy!

Have to say - I was pretty nervous going into this as I haven't been specifically training for it. I used to take the stairs to my 7th floor office every day, but had to stop back in December when we moved to a building with locked stairwells.

So I was pretty much hoping that this winter's boot camps and C25K would get me there.

And they did!

I shaved just over a minute off last year's time AND had enough energy left over to say "OK!" when my son suggested that we jog back to the subway afterwards. I'm calling that one an NSV.

This has become an event that I to use to monitor my fitness levels - not just my finish time, but also how I feel afterwards. It's been very gratifying to see an improvement from year to year.

For my son - last year, he wasn't old enough to go it alone and had to stick with me. He was really nice about it, but definitely felt that he was held back by going at his mother's pace (um, thanks, kid). He was really eager to see how he could do on his own this year now that he's old enough to fly solo.

Turns out that he's a powerhouse! Said that he took a brief break at the 96th floor but otherwise went straight to the top. Shaved 8:33 minutes off of his "waiting for Mom" time. Huh - guess he really WAS holding himself back last year!

I'm crazy proud of him. And grateful. Grateful that he's a fit kid, grateful that he looks at challenges like this as fun, and grateful that he does stuff like this with me.

To you parents out there - how do your kids stay active? Mine are pretty active but balk at most afterschool & weekend lessons/leagues outside of Guides & Scouts - they really prefer to have their free time to ride bikes, kick a ball around, go for hikes and so on. This past weekend, they tried to teach the dog how to hula hoop - which meant that they spent a lot of time hula hooping to show her how it works. Whatever keeps you off the couch and outdoors, right?

In other news - I've been gaining and losing the same 3-4 pounds all winter and I've had enough. Time to recommit to weight loss. This was a good week of gigantic salads for lunch, portion control at other meals, no idle snacking, and tracking everything on myfitnesspal. Let's see how long I can keep this up - would be great to smash through this and hit the next milestone.

Here's this week's recap -

Saturday - CN Tower climb in the morning; slow jog to the school playground in the evening then walk back (2.6K round trip). Slept very, very well afterwards.

Sunday - Rest day.

Monday - Curves circuit integrated into a boot camp = 50 minutes of pure awesome. Then a very slow 250m at the pool. My arms were very, very tired!

Tuesday - Rest day. 1K slow walk with the dog.

Wednesday - 2K dog park walk after work, then later Stella and I went on our first real run in a while. Did 3 sets of 10s and 1s, covered 3.6K.

Blackberries take terrible pictures after dusk. And the flash makes the dog squint. But then we ran, and it was a good one.

Thursday - Another Curves circuit integrated into boot camp for 60 minutes. Sweaty, hard and hilarious.

Friday - Rest day. Should have gone for a run but the legs just weren't willing.  Instead, my husband dragged me out to help my daughter make a new addition to our family zoo. Meet Cinderella and Cocoa:

The pets outnumber the humans now. At least these don't shed.

Welcome, Stella!

We adopted a dog this week!

We've been talking about getting a dog for a number of years, but the time never seemed right.

Until now. 

I think we needed the kids to be a bit older (they're 7-1/2 and 11-1/2  now), and more importantly, we needed to put some distance between us and our old lives on the couch.

If you've been reading for a while, you may have noticed that our weekends involve going for hikes, swims, to the beach, to the park and so on as often as possible...and that our vacations involve camping rather than airplanes and hotels.

Things weren't always this active - but they have been for a couple of years now.

Yep, time's right to add a dog to the family. 

Enter...Stella!



Welcome home, Stella!

We noticed Stella on the Toronto Animal Services website last weekend after the kids and I got back from camping. Called to ask about her. Mentioned we have kids. Staff thought we should meet her. And the next thing you know, we were jumping in the car.

Before meeting her. we talked at length with the staff about our family, our routines, our home and so on. They said that we DEFINITELY needed to meet her.

And there she was - big, gentle, calm Stella. Spent a lot time with her, fell in love, said "see you in the morning" and went out to buy supplies.

At the dog park. I love that she's listening to whatever my daughter is whispering to her.

Stella's a 20-month old Shepherd/Husky cross and she's the dog of our dreams. Housebroken, leash trained,  beautiful manners, eager to please, great with the kids, great with adults and loves other dogs. Best of all, she immediately accepted us as her new family.

In motion at the dog park. Can you see her grinning?

Bonus - for a low, low adoption fee, she came with all of her shots, a clean bill of health and she's been spayed. And did I mention that she's housebroken? :-)


Happy, happy boy with a happy, happy dog

To be honest - I never thought we'd adopt a dog from a shelter. I know it's the right thing to do, and our cats have all come from shelters, but I've always been nervous about not knowing a dog's history, particularly since we've got kids.

Check her out - heeling, slack leash, walking calmly with her boy.
This relationship is off to a great start.

Oh man, was I wrong. The perfect dog was waiting for us.

One might be waiting for you too. Just sayin'.

http://www.toronto.ca/animal_services/pet_adoption.htm


Here's this week's recap:

Dog, dog park, dog park, drive to gym/workout, bike to gym/workout (6K round trip), dog park, walk the dog. Somewhere in there, I signed my daughter and I up for a women's only 5K this fall. This one comes with firefighters and great swag - can't wait!

Ride home from the gym. 8.15pm and it's getting dark. So sad to see the end of summer.

Move it or Lose it - Cat Edition

Our cat, Zoe, is 8. Rescued as a tiny kitten, she grew up with the two older cats already in our family. Miles and Cora passed on a couple of years ago, and Zoe seemed REALLY happy to be the only cat in the house. However, we gradually noticed over the past year that she's been sleeping a lot (even for a cat) and becoming very, very sedentary.


Zoe on Christmas morning - December 2010

Eight is too young for this sort of thing.

Quick trip to the vet confirmed that she's in perfect health.

Time to shake things up.

There is a pet store in our neighbourhood that takes in kittens and gives them away for free.

Enter...Sally.

Sally joined us in September. Very playful, very affectionate and desperate for Zoe to play with her. First few weeks were pretty...wild...but eventually they sorted things out.

8 hours post-spay and trying to figure out how to play with her mousie - Sally, January 2011

Zoe doesn't spend all day sleeping any more.

The cats chase each other around the house, play with each other, play fight with each other, groom each other and generally spend time together.

Lesson learned - surround yourself with people who have more energy than you do. It will keep you moving!

Here's this week's recap -

Saturday - Had a GREAT workout at Curves. Love how the trainers at this club encourage us to ramp up the cardio that we're doing on the recovery stations in between machines. So, so sweaty! Power walked my daughter to gymnastics and back (1.1K round trip), then home to relax and clean the house.

Sunday - Power walked the kids down to the community centre (1.1K round trip) and went swimming for just over an hour. Great to be back in the pool! 



Think we'll go swimming INSIDE today - Jan 2011

Monday - Lunchtime power walk with Lynda - about 1K.

Tuesday - Stairs to 7 in AM; Curves workout after dinner.

Wednesday - Stairs to 7 after a catered lunch where I completely lost my mind and ate about 1100 calories of fabulous bruschetta, caprese salad on garlic toast, spinach salad and CHEESE.

Thursday - Stairs to 7 in AM; Zumba Curves after dinner. So fun!

Friday - Stairs to 7 in AM; 2.1K power walk at lunch. Been a while since I walked this far - felt so great. I was craving a decent walk earlier this week and am so pleased that I was able to make time today.

What I'm reading this week - Push by Sapphire. Possibly the world's most depressing book...but with a ray of hope shining through.